Jacopo Sannazzaro, also spelled Jacopo Sannazaro, pseudonym Actius Sincerus Sannazarius (born July 28, 1456, Naples [Italy]—died April 24, 1530, Naples), Italian poet whose Arcadia was the first pastoral romance and, until the rise of the Romantic movement, one of the most influential and popular works of Italian literature.

Sannazzaro became court poet of the house of Aragon at the age of 20. In 1501, when Frederic, last king of the dynasty, lost his throne, Sannazzaro accompanied him into exile in France. During this period he brought to light several lost Latin works, including Ovid’s Halieutica and Nemesianus’s Cynegetica. After Frederic’s death in 1504 Sannazzaro returned to Naples, where he spent the rest of his life.

Sannazzaro wrote both in Italian and in Latin. In addition to Arcadia, his Italian works include lyric poems in Petrarchan style. Arcadia (1504) is partly autobiographical, partly allegorical, and consists of short poems linked by prose narrative.

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...they rarely showed originality as poets. Toward the end of the 15th century there were notable exceptions in Giovanni Pontano, Michele Marullo Tarcaniota, Politian (Angelo Ambrogini Poliziano), and Jacopo Sannazzaro. These poets succeeded in creating sincere poetry in which conventional and less conventional themes were expressed with new, original intimacy and fervour.